Stream: Body - Alxxa

Body is the latest track from musician Alex Saad and it’s an infectious pop record about giving into your sense of physical desire for someone you just can’t resist.

Whilst Saad started playing piano at a young age her original professional intentions were in the directions of science and medicine. At college she started studying physics but she eventually found a way to combine her mutual love for physics and music by learning about songwriting and music production from a physics-based mindset.

Body is the title track from Alxxa’s forthcoming EP, due out on 23 March, and it’s the sound of the electro-pop R&B she is now pursuing from her LA base. With lyrics that capture that furtive physical exploration of another person that ensues in the early days of personal addiction. Both the vocals and the production work here are sublime - very pop, but so wonderfully catchy.

Review: You Stopped Dying - Pale Blue

Pale Blue's You Stopped Dying has been bouncing around the inside of my head for the past month and a bit.

I first heard the EP's title track whilst travelling, in San Francisco, experiencing an early spring in the midst of an emotional autumn. I guess that's a fall for San Francisco.

Pale Blue are duo Elizabeth Wight and Mike Simonetti. Having released their debut album in 2015 last month saw them release You Stopped Dying. Drawing inspiration from shoegaze artists like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, Pale Blue have created something new - a style now being dubbed technogaze.

The sound of Pale Blue is based heavily on Wight's strong vocal performances. On the title track minimal electronic production work - pads, high hats and some acid - provide the foundations for an ethereal performance from Wight. Looped vocals create additional layers of melody and Wight's main vocal hook, the repeated refrain “You Stopped Dying”, feels like a religious experience. It's both beautiful and heartbreaking at once - the sound of rebirth.

Daughter of Babylon is deeper, a full on acid house workout with liberal 808s and once again Wight's transcendent vocals. It's disorientating and disturbing, let somehow pleasantly otherworldly, like being caught in the grasp of something beautiful yet aliens.

Side B of this release is made up of two versions of the track Love - both the original and a dub. It's a slice of minimal techno, the kind unafraid to bask in analogue sounding hiss and emotional fear. Wight's vocal punctures your head and heart as she monotones the vocal: “Love... where did it come from?”

Love sounds like one half of a conversation. Wight's laughter acting as a denial of her past feelings and the dilution and eventual death of the strongest emotion we are capable of as humans. “It's all gone” she deadpans, “yeah, I don’t believe in it any more. Nothing is forever.”

Techno doesn’t often feel like this. It’s a genre known for being clinical. And here it is, analogue and alien, and yet unmistakeable in its humanity.

Out now on vinyl and digital - lnk.to/CRM194 Pale Blue, the duo of Elizabeth Wight and Mike Simonetti, released their debut album to much critical acclaim back in 2015. They come together once again with their latest EP You Stopped Dying due to drop on Crosstown Rebels in February. “The “You Stopped Dying” ep takes influence from shoegaze groups like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine and moves it to the dance floor....The result is a strange hybrid that some have called “technogaze”....This would never work if Liz wasn’t such a strong vocalist. Her amazing vocal range makes it easy.” Mike Simonetti Pale Blue is a hypnotic affair, the driving bass sitting perfectly under Wight’s powerful yet ethereal vocals. Daughter of Babylon takes the record into heavier techno territory with its thudding bass and Wight’s breathy vocals delicately layered over the top. On the flip side Love is an unapologetically industrial number with screeching synths that echo around Wight’s vocals. Simonetti and Wight have each earned their musical stripes in their own rights. Simonetti founded the hugely popular Italians Do It Better as well as his own successful record label, 2MR. He’s released a slew of records on highly regarded imprints such as Me Me Me, Correspondant and Public Release, and enjoys a fruitful career as a touring DJ, which shows no sign of abating. Wight has previously lent her exhilarating vocals to the West Coast band, Silver Hands of which she was once one half of.

Stream: Cherry - New Shack

Cherry is the new butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling pop gem from New Shack.

Cat Leavey’s vocals are the standout on this track for me... Working together with Eric Robertson, Leavey and Robertson are Utah dark pop duo New Shack. The pair initially started working together whilst Leavey was living in Germany, and much of their music was created remotely.

Packed with woozy bass and lush snappy percussion, Cherry is a wonderfully dizzy pop record and the vocals skip across that wonderful production like a stone skimming across water. Check it out below:

Stream: Diamonds - Vera

Diamonds is the latest track from Copenhagen’s Vera, real name William Asingh.

Having worked with the likes of Off Bloom, Liss and MØ, Asingh’s solo work shows off his sophisticated production capabilities and eclectic tastes. Following on from his debut EP Good Job No Conversation, Vera is back with this new track - a sax driven piece of soul that somehow feels both raw and polished.

The track itself is about the difficulty of coming to terms with a disconnection from someone you care about - weighing up the depth of feeling you really have with the need to protect yourself. Describing the track, Asingh says:

“The song is a about being pushed away by people that you really trust and love. About trying to demean them in your own head to make things easier, but still knowing deep inside how much you care… Musically its all about smooth saxophones and lounge vibes combined with a classical pop dynamic. Its definitely the most pop track I've made as Vera. And probably my favorite Vera song so far.”

Sometimes things don’t work out, regardless of how much you care about someone and it can be hard to move on from someone you never really stop caring about. Diamonds is a survival mechanism - throwing shade where none really exists.

Stream: Dirty Love - Mt. Joy

Ahead of their debut eponymously titled debut LP , Mt. Joy have recently put out Dirty Love, the last track aimed at offering a preview ahead of their album release. It’s a bluesy take on Americana - an emotional gut punch full of feeling and atmosphere.

With gently strummed instruments and some threatening bass the track is a lesson in restraint - the real work put into giving space for the vocals to plead for a little empathy. A record of cursed love and desperation - the sort of thing that happens when you fall into a relationship that means you can’t help but hurt yourself.

Look out for Mt. Joy’s debut album, due for release on 2 March 2018.

Facebook - facebook.com/mtjoyband Twitter - twitter.com/mtjoyband Instagram - instagram.com/mtjoyband Soundcloud - @mtjoyband prod. by Jon Gilbert Released on Dualtone Records - February 13th